A life-sized sculpture of a huge polar bear has been unveiled near the centre of London as part of a bid to rally politicians in Britain and across Europe to back a global trade ban on rugs and other products derived from the iconic Arctic animal — a plan strongly opposed by the Canadian government and Inuit communities that rely on income derived from what they consider a sustainable harvest.

The issue is coming to a head in advance of a major international meeting that begins March 3 in Thailand, where delegates from Canada and other signatories of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna — CITES — are expected to debate the risks of a continued trade in polar bear parts at a time when climate change is seen by some experts as a serious threat to the creature’s existence.

Environmentalist Stanley Johnson and father of Mayor of London Boris Johnson, poses for photographers after unveiling a polar bear sculpture called “Boris” in central London, Monday, Jan. 14, 2013. The life-size sculpture, made by artist Adam Binder, is part of a campaign to raise awareness of the plight of the species.

The polar bear, currently listed on Appendix II of the CITES treaty but proposed for “uplisting” by the U.S. to the more restrictive Appendix I category, was classified as a “species of special concern” by the federal government in November 2011. That designation, prompted by what Environment Minister Peter Kent called Canada’s “unique conservation responsibility” to protect a Canadian population that represents about two-thirds of the world’s estimated 23,000 polar bears, kickstarted a three-year review of the management of the species in this country.

But the view that depleting sea ice is severely threatening polar bears by making it harder for them to hunt seals has been hotly debated in Canada, where Environment Canada officials are backing national Inuit organizations in fighting the proposed CITES uplisting to the level of a global trade ban.

“Yes, the polar bear is an iconic animal. And people will use it to their advantage to try to pull on the heartstrings and loosen up people’s wallets to donate to something that isn’t true or based on facts,” Terry Audla, president of Ottawa-based Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, told Postmedia News in response to the London statue unveiling. “But it’s getting a little tiresome when Inuit are trying to live off the polar bear and are managing it in such a way that it’s actually increasing the population, and it’s actually working towards conservation of the polar bear.”

On Monday in London’s Sloane Square, a prominent public space a few kilometres from Buckingham Palace, environmental activist Stanley Johnson — father of London’s current mayor, Boris Johnson — unveiled the four-metre-tall likeness of a polar bear stretched high on its hind legs.

The bronze beast was dubbed “Boris” by its creator, the British artist Adam Binder, in honour of the beefy, fair-haired mayor of the U.K. capital.

“The world is looking to the U.K. to stand up for what is right,” said Johnson, who is also a former member of the European Parliament. “We have a chance to reduce the threat to polar bears, an iconic globally endangered species, by supporting through CITES an international ban on trade in this species. . . . Our government should not stand by and do nothing while yet another species is obliterated from the planet.”

A statement issued by Johnston, Binder, British conservation advocate David Shepherd and U.K. polar explorer Jim McNeill added: “Second to climate change and habitat loss, there is near universal agreement that the annual polar bear hunt in Canada and the illegal sale of poached Russian bears is one of the biggest threats to the species.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron and his top officials “hold in their hands the fate of the world’s polar bear populations as they determine whether to support a ban on the slaughter of this species for their highly prized body parts, which are sold to international buyers,” the statement also claimed, urging British citizens to sign a petition pressing the U.K. and other European governments to support the proposed CITES uplisting.

Audla has been lobbying officials in Europe and the United States in recent months in a bid to block the uplisting, meeting with government leaders in Washington, Paris and Brussels. He said Tuesday he also has a trip to London planned ahead of the Thailand summit in March — a last-ditch effort to convince British politicians to ignore the pleadings of the “Boris” sculptor and his allies — followed by a mission to Bangkok for the pivotal CITES meeting itself.

Audla said about 600 polar bears are currently hunted annually in the Canadian Arctic according to a management plan carefully calibrated by Inuit stakeholders and federal and territorial experts to preserve the health of 13 distinct polar bear sub-populations in this country.

He said the Canadian population has increased from 14,000 to an estimated 16,000 in the past few years alone.

A global trade ban, he added, would not reduce the number of polar bears killed each year in Canada, but could end the sport-hunting industry that sees well-heeled adventurers from Europe, China and elsewhere travel to the Canadian Arctic and spend as much as $20,000 each to hunt about half of the 600 harvested annually in this country.

That commercial activity, he said, adds up to millions of dollars in revenues for financially struggling northern communities.

“It’s very important,” said Audla. “There’s not a lot of options that we have for economic means. We don’t have the industry or the agriculture, we don’t have the Nike shoe company or PepisCo or whatever, that we’re able to obtain jobs from. There’s no auto industry. What little money that’s available to us is going to be taken away based on untruths.”